F.B.I. targets peaceful anti-fracking and Rising Tide activists, Washington Post reveals

[Karmadillo]

http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/2012/03/f-b-i-targets-peaceful-anti-fracking-and-rising-tide-activists-washington-post-reveals/

F.B.I. targets peaceful anti-fracking and Rising Tide activists, Washington Post reveals
Rising Tide North Texas subject of intimidation campaign by federal government

In today’s Washington Post, it was revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been investigating peaceful climate and anti-fracking activists as a threat. In response to anonymous complaints Rising Tide North Texas, a part of the Rising Tide North America network, has been the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation. The FBI has visited and called for an interview Rising Tide organizer, University of North Texas (UNT) student and a marine veteran of the Afghan war Ben Kessler, as well as UNT philosophy professor Adam Briggle.

“If all I have done to be investigated as a threat is to peacefully express my opinions, then we are in serious trouble,” said Ben Kessler. “Activism is not terrorism. The only dangerous threat in North Texas is the threat that hydro-fracturing, or “fracking,” has on the health and lives of the residents of our communities.”

The article also revealed cooperation between the F.B.I. and local police in Moscow Idaho around repeated protests organized by Wild Idaho Rising Tide around the tar sands heavy haul truck shipments.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-eco-terrorism-wanes-governments-still-target-activist-groups-seen-as-threat/2012/02/28/gIQAA4Ay3R_story.html

As eco-terrorism wanes, governments still target activist groups seen as threat
By Juliet Eilperin, Published: March 10

Ben Kessler, a student at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, was more than a little surprised that an FBI agent questioned his philosophy professor and acquaintances about his whereabouts and his sign-waving activities aimed at influencing local gas drilling rules.

“It was scary,” said Kessler, who is a national organizer for the nonviolent environmental group Rising Tide North America. He said the agent approached him this past fall and said that the FBI had received an anonymous complaint and were looking into his opposition to hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” The bureau respected free speech, the agent told him, but was “worried about things being taken to an extreme level.”

Even as environmental and animal rights extremism in the United States is on the wane, officials at the federal, state and local level are continuing to target groups they have labeled a threat to national security, according to interviews with numerous activists, internal FBI documents and a survey of legislative initiatives across the country.

Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad (R) signed a law this month, backed by the farm lobby, that makes it a crime to pose as an employee or use other methods of misrepresentation to get access to operations in an attempt to expose animal cruelty. Utah passed a similar bill, nicknamed an “ag-gag” law, on Wednesday. Last month, Victor VanOrden, an activist in his mid-20s, received the maximum sentence of five years in prison under a separate Iowa law for attempting to free minks from one of the state’s fur farms.

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[Champion Jack]

1. Amazing waste of resources

[Mopar151]

2. And Jack DeCoster is still walking around loose.....

It boggles the mind.

[jsmirman]

3. It is so unspeakably depressing

Will Potter wrote a great book on this insane government campaign, "Green is the New Red."

[kenny blankenship]

4. Once we elect a Democrat for President all of this will change!

No longer will the State rent itself out to rich corporations and rentiers to serve as bill their collector or the truncheon wielding goon squad sent to silence their critics and whistle blowers!

[woo me with science]

6. Time to face facts. No more illusions.

The parties are purchased and complicit. The attack on us by the one percent is now systematic, sustained, and bipartisan.

You cannot solve a problem if you refuse to acknowledge it. We must occupy, because change is not coming from inside this purchased system.

[saras]

7. The sad truth is that your post is a blunt, accurate statement of fact.

But it's unlikely that we get to have a genuinely democratic president in the 21st century.

[Downtown Hound]

5. I'm a member of Rising Tide

Hey FBI, fuck you!

LOL.

Oh, and, on edit, Rising Tide is a totally non-violent organization that stresses education, community involvement and education, and when needed, NON-VIOLENT civil disobedience to confront climate change. It does not advocate violence, property destruction, or any other acts that might be considered "extreme" by some.